Various oils currently include gasoline, diesel and other alkanes; benzene, toluene, xylene and other aromatic hydrocarbons; styrene, methyl styrene and other aromatic monomers; acrylic ester monomers; dichloromethane, chloroform and other halogenated hydrocarbons. The above matters are all volatile and highly toxic. Once leaked, the disposal will be very complex.
At present, people usually adopt oil fence to prevent dissipation of oil, and at the same time, recover as much oil as possible using oil absorbents such as oil absorbent pads, mats or felt. Oil absorbent felt is a microfiber absorbent material fabricated by 100% polypropylene. The oil absorbent felt is exclusively for absorbing oils and petroleum liquids, mainly used in marine vessels and oil spills, particularly suitable for handling large-scale crude oil spills. However, oil absorbent felt has many shortcomings when used in actual practice, namely:
(1) Longer processing time. For dealing with emergencies, time is the most important key factor in control pollution. Common oil absorbent felt needs 1-2 days to completely control pollution;
(2) Poor oil holding capability. Common oil absorbent felt absorbs oil by physical adsorption, thus the adsorbed oil will seep out when in use because of extrusion and gravity, so the felt can not remove all the oil from the contaminated water;
(3) Reusability. Common oil absorbent felt can not be reused; and
(4) Common oil absorbent felt can not absorb hydrophilic organic matters, besides it absorbs oils together with water in the water system.
The above-said defects greatly restrict the applications of oil absorbent felt. In other words, the felt is not ideal for use in the emergency treatment of water pollution accidents. Thus, a kind of quick oil absorbent material is needed urgently to effectively address disposal of water pollution accidents.